About this Spotlight
Spotlight Events feature conversations with high-profile film and television industry professionals who share helpful advice and insights on their career experiences and creative processes.
Sofia Coppola’s highly anticipated eighth film, Priscilla, is based on the memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. The film, which stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation and the best actress award for Spaeny.
Her films includes The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003) for which she won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, Marie Antoinette (2006), Somewhere (2010), The Bling Ring (2013), The Beguiled (2017) where she made history as only the second woman to win the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and On The Rocks (2020).
In addition to her film career, Sofia directed a production of Verdi’s classic, La Traviata at the Rome Opera House, with fashion designer Valentino Garavani and production designer Nathan Crowley.
For this Spotlight Event, Sofia will discuss her creative process in making Priscilla and her success in sustaining a career as a filmmaker.
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SpotlightTeam
Sofia Coppola
Panelist
Photo credit: Melodie McDaniel
Sofia Coppola has written and directed her eighth film “Priscilla” based on the memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. The film stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, is produced by Coppola, Youree Henley and Lorenzo Mieli and will be distributed by A24.
Coppola made history in 2017 as only the second woman to win the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and the first woman to win since 1961 for her film, “The Beguiled,” starring Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Colin Farrell.
Coppola’s directorial debut was “The Virgin Suicides” (1999) which she adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel of the same name. The movie starred Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, and Kathleen Turner. With a world premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival, The Virgin Suicides subsequently earned her the MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker.
Coppola’s next film, “Lost in Translation” (2003), for Focus Features, screened at the Toronto, Venice, and Telluride Film Festivals. The movie brought her the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson won BAFTA Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, among many other honors that the cast and crew received worldwide.
Her third feature as writer/director, “Marie Antoinette,” (2006) was based in part on Antonia Fraser’s biography Marie Antoinette: The Journey, and had its world premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival. The movie, which Coppola also produced, starred Kirsten Dunst in the title role. The film’s costume designer, Milena Canonero, won an Academy Award for her work on the picture.
“Somewhere” (2010) was shot at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. She wrote, directed and produced the movie, which stars Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning. It premiered at the 67th Venice Film Festival, where it was honored with The Golden Lion.
Her next film, “The Bling Ring,” (2013) based on true events, followed a group of teenagers on a thrilling and disturbing crime-spree in the Hollywood Hills, with an ensemble cast starring Emma Watson, Leslie Mann, Taissa Farmiga, and Katie Chang.
“A Very Murray Christmas” was released by Netflix in December 2015. Coppola wrote, produced and directed the film in which Bill Murray rounds up an all-star cast for an evening of music, comedy and good cheer in this homage to classic holiday variety shows.
Most recently she wrote and directed “On The Rocks” (2020) starring Rashida Jones, Bill Murray and Marlon Wayans. The film follows a young mother who reconnects with her playboy father on an adventure in New York and was the first co-production between A24 and Apple.
She serves as producer on “Fairyland” based on the critically acclaimed book by Alysia Abbot, directed by her friend Andrew Durham.
In addition to her film career, Sofia directed a production of Verdi’s classic, “La Traviata” at the Rome Opera House, for which she has teamed up with fashion designer Valentino Garavani and production designer Nathan Crowley. In 2022, she created a room for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit, “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.”
Coppola grew up in Northern California and studied Fine Art at California Institute of the Arts.